US pilots targeted by mysterious laser flashes

[Ace_777]

Initially, he claimed his daughter aimed the device

Oh just be a man and admit you idiotic fool. Why did you point the laser at the plane anyway !

[Craig.]

Like alot of idiots, he hears the story on the news and thinks, "hey i gotta try that out". he did so and too bad for him he got caught

[ATI_7500]

 
NEWARK, N.J. - Federal authorities Tuesday used the Patriot Act to charge a man with pointing a laser...

Does this mean there are two FBI agents standing in front of your door, holding a sheet of paper and saying: "This is the Patriotic Act. And you are arrested." ??

[Jared]

lol, now hopefully something similar will happen to the people doign it elsewhere...

[Archer <]-]

Does this mean there are two FBI agents standing in front of your door, holding a sheet of paper and saying: "This is the Patriotic Act. And you are arrested." ??

nah it just means that was their reason for arresting him

(although itwould be funny if they had the paper on a leash and said, go attack him! good boy! lol )

[Rivers]

OMG I know that Americans still remember the tragedy that happened that horrible day, but now some people are with certain paranoia, the guy bought his laser and was happily playing with it, I know it may be something stupid to do but why arrest him with those ridiculous charges.
I doubt he could blind the pilot and copilot with it, I own a laser myself and its very hard to keep the bean steady at big distances and the beam has already been pointed at my eye an I can tell you wont go blind for a few seconds it

[Hagar]

Can someone please explain to me a legitimate reason for ordinary people owning these powerful lasers. They must be powerful to reach this sort of altitude from the ground.

the cockpit of a Continental Airlines plane was illuminated by a green laser when about 15 miles from landing at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport in Ohio. The plane, which was flying at 10,000ft at the time, later landed safely.

[Deputy]

Does this mean there are two FBI agents standing in front of your door, holding a sheet of paper and saying: "This is the Patriotic Act. And you are arrested." ??

No, that would mean there are 20 FBI agents with SMG's to your head.

[ATI_7500]

No, that would mean there are 20 FBI agents with SMG's to your head.

Well, at least that's not ridiculous, compared to the other scenario...

[Archer <]-]

[quote]OMG I know that Americans still remember the tragedy that happened that horrible day, but now some people are with certain paranoia, the guy bought his laser and was happily playing with it, I know it may be something stupid to do but why arrest him with those ridiculous charges.
I doubt he could blind the pilot and copilot with it, I own a laser myself and its very hard to keep the bean steady at big distances and the beam has already been pointed at my eye an I can tell you wont go blind for a few seconds it

[Craig.]

To give you an idea what these higher power consumer lasers can do. A guy selling them set one up 1 foot from a plastic cup, the laser burnt a hole through it in a few seconds. The human eye is alot easier to damage than plastic.

[Chris_F]

Can someone please explain to me a legitimate reason for ordinary people owning these powerful lasers. They must be powerful to reach this sort of altitude from the ground.

Just one example: high speed data transfer over long distances (via fiber).  Seems kinda silly to put together a whole regulation/permitting organization for the purposes of controlling something no more dangerous (and probably less so) than a kitchen knife.

Sure, there may be no legitimate need for a private citizen to own any number of commonly available commercial use items.  Why should I ever want to own a tunnel boring machine or a large wind tunnel?  But these things aren't extremely dangerous (like explosives or nuclear materials) so why restrict their sale?

BTW, the FDA does regulate lasers, but to my knowledge not their sale.  Instead they basically make sure a given laser will meet the spec that the manufacturer says it meets.  This makes it so our supposedly eye safe lasers (like low power laser pointers and CD mechanisms) don't end up overly powerful.

[Rivers]

I guess this is the laser in subject 9000ft in darkness
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a47/

General Information
The lasers are classified into a few categories categories. The typical types of laser pointers are Class 2 and Class 3a. Class 2 lasers are labeled with a "CAUTION" label, and Class 3a are labeled with a "DANGER" label. The labels are required by the FDA. There is a study done at the Department of Ophthalmology at the Mayo Clinic where 3 subjects looked at a class 3a laser for several minutes without causing damage. The subjects experienced after images ( like seen from a bright flash of a camera ), but there were not permanent effects. This study of reported accidental incidents also did not find support for long term damage. Also theoretical damage for class 3a lasers would not occur until after 100 seconds of direct viewing. We were not able to find any cases of permanent eye damage.

The classification of lasers is not consistent. The US has a standard of standard IIIa, which does not consider the irradiance of the laser ( see the table below). These lasers would typically be classified as 3b. There Lasers are sometimes mislabeled as 3a instead of IIIa.
The NRPB ( National Radiological Protection Board) of the UK recommended limiting the availability of lasers to to the public. Only class 2 lasers and lower would be allowed. (NRPB) This is now the current law in the UK.

http://www.vrac.iastate.edu/~heroje/574/lasersafety.htm

[Ivan]

I doubt he could blind the pilot and copilot with it,

has been done with some success in the iran-iraq war, against low flying iranian bombers. they used a modified construction site range measuring laser on a tripod.
Other stories tell about iraqi tank crews using their laser rangefinder against infantry units

[jordonj]

Just another moron...